Over the past 18 months, the company has spent more than $40m on lawyers’ fees and a nother $6m on settlements with former staff and other litigators.

“It’s been a wild ride,” she admits, dressed head to toe in black as she works the micro-wardrobe that enables her to pack carry-on for a business trip to London and the Middle East. “I didn’t expect it to be so contentious. It’s just a clothing company,” she says.

She says that certain members of the former management continue to stir up difficulties to fuel their agenda of “finding a way back into the company at all costs – at any cost”.

“I don’t think [Charney] will ever give up, but it doesn’t matter as there are new owners of the company,” she says.

Charney, who founded the brand from his Tufts University dormitory room in 1989, lost his $8.2m stake when the company announced it was delisting last month and filed for bankruptcy with debts of more than $200m.

American Apparel files for bankruptcy

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The process, which should be completed early next year, will see bonds exchanged for equity in the company, reducing its debt to no more than $135m and cutting annual interest payments by $20m.

The debt restructuring is a key part of Schneider’s turnaround plan, which relies on reducing central costs while trying to reboot a brand that has become synonymous more with sleaze than sex appeal.

It’s a tricky game. “We’re trying to build the plane while flying the plane,” she said.

Schneider says the brand will now talk more about US manufacturing and its campaigning work on immigration and gay rights. Sex will not, however, disappear.

“As a woman and a feminist, I want to celebrate women and ensure whatever we are doing doesn’t denigrate women, but I still think women are sexy and we are still a sexy brand,” she says.

Only 10% of the brand’s ads, such as a “back to school” shot of a young girl bending over a car to show her underwear, stepped over the line, she claims, adding that such ads will not be appearing again.

She says the sales problems are down to organisational and financial issues that prevented the company’s newest and most exciting products from reaching stores. This season, it only had enough money to deliver 10% of its autumn/winter range and that was after using every scrap of fabric in its warehouse.

“Our customer wants new, and when we introduce new products into stores we win. It’s less of a brand problem than an execution problem,” she says.

“Looking forward, we have a beautiful spring range and the liquidity to put that into work. We’re hoping that things will start on a better track going from spring into fall next year.”

Whether in forecasting and managing stock, making sure that advertised products are featured in stores or regulating sizes properly so customers know what fits, Schneider says a lot can be done to fix the basics.

Perhaps her most contentious move has been her cost-cutting strategy, which has reduced overtime hours at the factory and in stores. About 135 jobs have been cut in manufacturing and at head office in the past year.

She says that the company had a $14m overtime bill in 2014 and was losing money for the fifth year in a row. It has now changed staff contracts in stores and used planning tools to cut back on overtime. She insists that factory workers’ average hours have dropped just one hour to 40 hours, despite all the problems at the company.

“We have to manage things for the good of the whole company, for everyone’s benefit. There’s an overall understanding of that throughout the business,” she says.

Despite all the brickbats, she is motivated by keeping American Apparel’s 9,000 workers in their jobs. “This leadership team is not the group who brought Amercian Apparel into bankruptcy. It is the group that is taking it out … Few brands have this cachet. American Apparel isn’t going anywhere. It’s going everywhere,” she says.

American Apparel: highs and lows

1989 Dov Charney founds the brand from his Tufts University dorm room

2006 The company floats on the New York Stock Exchange

2008 An employee sues, alleging that Charney ordered her to pretend to masturbate in front of him. He gives $25m in shares to employees

2009 The company is forced to fire 1,500 immigrant workers after inspectors at its Los Angeles factory find they have invalid or suspect papers. Debts mount as the company expands rapidly